Thursday, January 24, 2013

Matt Alderman and I have often spoken here of "the Other Modern" -- a series and subject which has certainly been of interest to a number of our readers. While readers are familiar with this topic here on NLM, there are at least a few other bloggers out there writing about this subject as well. One such example is Andrew Cusack who has explored this subject over the years and most recently published another piece on this subject on his blog: The Other Modern in Madrid.

In his piece he looks at Miguel Fisac’s Church of Espíritu Santo, Madrid:

Andrew provides more photos of the church, as well as some commentary.

As does he, I quite like the church and find it rather compelling. Similarly, I would tend to concur with Andrew's own critique of the sanctuary as it relates to the altar. Namely, it is the usual problem we have commented upon here more than once of altars that aren't accompanied either by a reredos or by a ciborium magnum. As is so often the case in such instances, the altar often ends up looking somehow strangely "stranded" by this omission, lacking in verticality and thus being overshadowed by the rest of the church building, taking away from its centrality. (In this particular instance, I will say, however, that the carved panels behind do mitigate this somewhat -- though only somewhat in my estimation.)

My own recommendation in this particular instance is that the use of the ciborium magnum would make a world of difference.